Jacob/Theories
Identity Incarnation Jacob is "Life" *The Man in Black represents the Grim Reaper aka Death (Smoke Monster), Jacob represents Life. As "Death" the Man in Black can take the form of the deceased, while "Life" is literally immortal with the ghost of Jacob possibly being the only one of genuine origin. Jacob is the Tree of Life The Island is a symbolic reference to Paradise. There are many biblical and mythological beings that can be put on either side. The truth is probably that Jacob/MIB represent many of these archetypes put together, be it biblical, Egyptian, Greek or Chinese. Going back as far as possible in biblical terms leads us to Eden. MIB represents the snake around the Tree of Good and Evil. The original sin was that the human being listened to the promises of the snake (MIB) promising him and her knowledge, just as the smoke monster/snake does with the candidates. He promised Sayid to see Nadia and Claire to see her son Aaron. Whether he will hold his promises is far from certain, but this is the way he can win people over to the dark side. He also promised knowledge to Sawyer. Jacob represents the Tree of Life. He can give life, heal, even resurrect (Locke). His touch is a gift. The rivalry between the two is that they both want to prove something. MIB thinks that human beings will always fall for his side. Jacob thinks that the human being has a free will and can choose and might not be tempted by MIB's promises. He is trying to prove this to MIB, in order to do that he needs to bring people to the island, i.e. candidates that prove that they are able to resist temptation and therefore are also strong enough to replace him, if necessary. The lighthouse list is Jacob's and the cave list is MIB's who desperately wants to leave the Island and free himself from the gridlock with Jacob and also needs someone to replace him. He wanted Ben to rule over the island when he has left. Strange that he suddenly cares about the Island, which according to his words was just an ordinary Island and that there was nothing to protect. But then of course leaving nobody on his side in charge would mean that someone from Jacob's side would take over. It is also interesting that we never see MIB eat or drink, but Jacob does so. When Sawyer offers MIB a drink, he just does as if he was drinking and when Jacob offers him fish, he said I have already eaten. This leads me to the Jacob/Esau parallel in which Jacob gave Esau food in exchange for his birthright, which could be a reason why MIB refuses Jacob's food. Jacob is "Good" (Light) Since the very beginning of the show, a struggle between 'dark' and 'light' forces from the Island has been alluded to, and both the duality and ambiguity of these concepts has been explored in numerous contexts. revealed more about the motivations for this conflict (on both sides) than has been gleaned from entire series prior to that point. *Jacob is ostensibly cast as 'light', and the man who desires to kill him as 'dark'. The fact that Nemesis has been driven to such great lengths by his desire to kill Jacob - and that Jacob is (eventually) willing to accept his fate as a 'loophole' in the somewhat metaphysical 'rules' both sides apparently have to abide by - tallies with our 'superficial' sense of what is good and evil. *'The Incident' also showed Jacob 'intervening' in the pre-Island lives of many of the Oceanic survivors who become central to the conflict. To each one he delivers a message, perhaps what he believes they 'need to hear' at that time and, crucially, he touches each one of them. It seems clear that Jacob's intervention and direct contact with these few at key moments in their lives is necessary for him to shape their destinies. One way of summarizing this is to say Jacob has power over the fate of the living, or can influence the shape of the future through other people. **Jacob significantly touching each of the people he meets in the past is directly opposite to his 'Nemesis', as (assuming the Monster is also appearing as Christian Shepard) Christian specifically says to Locke in This Place is Death that he cannot help him up - thereby he cannot touch someone. *Thematically, Jacob represents a belief in the good part of ourselves, and human nature as a whole, and the resulting hope for the future, regardless of the hardships that must be endured. It is this part of Ben he seems to express disappointment in when he asks "what about you?" At this point, Ben has become so totally dis-empowered by regret and bitterness that he no longer recognizes his own status or significance in matters. Everything becomes about why Jacob never spoke to him directly and everything he lost in the past. **This is also an extremely strong parallel to the Book of Job, with Linus representing Job. MiB and Jacob's conversation on the beach is similar to the wager between God and Satan. When Job (Linus) expresses angst toward God at losing everything, God's response is very similar to Jacob's "what about you?" Jacob is "Evil" (Dark) *The slightly off topic episode "Exposé" was a hint in this direction with revealing that LaShade wasn't the "good" boss but the the true villain the "Cobra". In fact, if you think about Jacob's meetings with the small Kate, small Sawyer, the married Sayid and the fallen Locke, then he always influenced their lives in a bad way: Kate doesn't learn that the breaking of rules (stealing) has consequences. Jacob helped Sawyer to write his letter by giving him a new pen otherwise Sawyer probably wouldn't seek vengeance his whole life. And if Jacob hadn't asked Sayid a question at the street, Nadia would have no reason to stop standing in the middle of the street (just to be hit by a car). She could have told Sayid about her keys while they both were walking. For Locke: perhaps he was supposed to die, because all that came after his fall from the window was false hope and being ripped off. *Jacob is the "Dark" one - the bad guy, and his nemesis is the good guy. Evidence: revisit their conversation at the beginning of "The Incident" when they talk about Jacob "bringing" more people to the Island and the nemesis says (paraphrasing) "when people come to the Island, it always ends the same, they destroy, they become corrupt" and Jacob says his line about there only being one ending. Watch the scene carefully. The man in the dark shirt appears to be bemoaning the fact that coming to the Island is what MAKES people like that, which is why Jacob wants them to come there. More Evidence: When Ben said "what about me?" Jacob very coldly said, "what about you?". Jacob doesn't care about people - he WANTS them to destroy and become corrupt. *The idea of who the good guys and the bad guys are is stressed through out every season. From the start we were made to believe that Jacob is the good guy, however, in Season 5, the last episode, Jacob is the one who brings all people who "fight" and "corrupt" to the Island, while his Nemesis disagrees to this. Nemesis has not really done a bad thing on purpose. Jacob is the one who causes all the troubles from the beginning, starting from bringing the passengers to the Island and ending with the causing of the flash-sideways, along with too many deaths and pain. In season 5, Jacob is the one who seems very provocative and careless, while the Nemesis seems concerned about the well being of the Island. So, it's Jacob who is the bad guy. *Interestingly he wears dark clothes whenever off-Island but light clothes on-island. This is very notable when he visits Ilana wearing black trousers, a black coat, and black gloves. Jacob is neither "good" nor "evil", but only the unMIB *Clearly we're meant to see one as 'dark' and the other as 'light'. But the dichotomy doesn't have to be Good/Evil. Just as Jack and Locke represent the 'Man of Science and 'The Man of Faith' respectively, Jacob and MiB are on opposite sides of philosophical dispute. Science is based on facts, what can be proven or disproven. Faith is a belief, it needs no proof for those who believe simply believe. Their faith is their proof. MiB and Jacob have played all of these scenarios out before and MiB has been proven right time and time again, "It always ends the same". Jacob counters with, "It only ends once." Religions around the world continue to this day with no actual scientific proof of the existence of any kind of God because of the faith of those who believe in them. However, those who don't believe in the existence of God are unable to prove that one doesn't exist, the old axiom that you can't prove a negative comes to mind. So in the philosophical struggle between Jacob and MiB, MiB states that Jacob is still trying to prove him WRONG because Jacob's faith only needs to debunk MiB's theory about people and there inherent tendency for evil to affirm his faith. MiB, for the most part, seems tired of this game and being right. When Jacob says, "It only ends once. Everything else that happens is just progress," MiB hesitates for a second and then expresses his desire to kill Jacob because he realizes that the game is never going to be over for Jacob. MiB views the game as pointless and probably has more concern for the people that use to play these games. He comes to see the ship's arrival knowing that Jacob is setting up the board, so to speak, for another match. MiB knows people are going to die during this game and his disgusted at Jacob's apparent lack of concern at this, and his obsession with proving him wrong. Much like Jack, MiB simply wants to 'go home'. The scene on the beach with Jacob and MiB is an echo to numerous scenes between Jack and Locke, but specifically one from Hearts and Minds. *The struggle between those Jacob and MiB can be described as some sort of "contest". Jacob is convinced that mankind is good and tries to prove this by leading small groups of people to the Island time and again (The Black Rock crew, the Losties and probably many more). To make matters more interesting, he chooses people with a messed up life. MiB however thinks that mankind is bad and has to be punished. This is why he killed Eko (he didn't show any repentance for having killed) and Nikki (he turned into a Medusa Spider and paralyzed her, thus causing the chain of events that eventually led to her death, because she was greedy). On an interesting side note, both of these characters violated the Ten Commandments. However, MiB isn't allowed to take someone's life, unless they are really evil. This is why he spares most of the other Losties. Kate, for instance, has certainly committed a lot of crimes, but on the Island she has been a good person. Jacob is "Water", Nemesis is "Fire" * Assume: Jacob is represented by water. MiB is represented by fire (smoke). They are both beings who can the form of other bodies. ** Jacob is now a spirit like the Smoke Monster but is represented by water. ** This is why there is a temple near the spring. Jacob lives near the water. * Other supporting evidence: ** Jacob's body is destroyed when MiB kicks it into a fire. ** Jacob "baptizes" Richard by dunking him into the ocean. ** When Jack first sees Christian, he leads him to water. Jacob is a normal person While Jacob certainly represents many things, such as a guardian, a healer, light, etc, this is what comes with becoming the protector of the Island. What we must remember is that Jacob himself is, at heart, a normal human being. Much like how the Other's actions and intentions change drastically due to the personality of the person in charge (e.g Widmore, Ben, Locke) so does the very nature of the Island based on who is it's guardian. Jacob is a very flawed individual. He is shown to be somewhat reclusive, choosing not to leave his comfort zone when he and his brother discover Claudia's people, and he is easily manipulated by his "mother", evident from his appointment as guardian of the Island being brought about through loyalty to his "mother", who in reality was just using him to be free of responsibility. He has also expressed faith in the rest of humanity, and it's this faith that makes the Island work in the way it does, referring to the previous point of how the Island works based on it's guardian. People who are 'lost' in their lives are brought there and tested to see if they can choose between right and wrong themselves because of Jacob's own personal view of right and wrong. These are all human qualities, very flawed, very real, perhaps even biased, rather than God-like and perfect. Granted, over time he is shown to have become wiser, more omniscient, and more God-like in nature, due to the years he's lived and experiences gained, but we mustn't forget the normal, flawed human being he was when he set out the rules of the Island after the death of his brother and "Mother". Personality * Jacob is aloof. When talking to his nemesis, Jacob seemed unaffected about what happened to "people". He calls everything before the end "progress." He does not care what happens during the progress. It is Jacob, not his nemesis, who is trying to bring about "the end" by playing a game using humans as pawns. ** They're both despicable beings in their own way. The Man in Black is so dangerous he is a threat to the entire world. Jacob has manipulated and destroyed countless lives for the greater good of stopping MIB because if the world ends there is nothing left. Jacob's goal of saving the world supersedes any limits on morality and fair play. He will do whatever horrible acts he has to keep MIB on the Island. MIB is able to gather followers by exploiting Jacob's hypocrisy. MIB may be evil but he's also right about Jacob and all the horrible things he's done. In MIB's mind he is just as much as victim as everyone else on the Island. Jacob isn't "good" and the monster isn't "evil". The monster represents the end of the world and Jacob and his schemes have all been stall tactics to try to prevent it from happening. Everything Jacob has done has been to save the world. Jacob has had to destroy countless lives to do it but not doing all these horrible things would have resulted in the deaths of everyone on earth. ***Having lured Hurley and Jack to the Lighthouse, Jacob seems to accept the possibility of a grim fate of the Others at the temple, though they have been loyal to him. * Jacob is compassionate to those who have undergone misfortune. He comforted Sawyer as a child and told Locke that he was sorry after Locke was thrown from the window. * Jacob expresses an optimistic view of humanity. The Man in Black expresses a view that people coming to the island only ends in death and destruction. Jacob disagrees and comments that anything before the end is merely "progress", referring to the mistakes that people make along the road to an ultimately redemptive "end". A master manipulator * Jacob is a master manipulator. He is introduced in The Incident, Parts 1 & 2 spinning yarn. This is a big clue. The term "spinning a yarn" is well known to be a euphemism for a person creating a deception. Jacob is then shown to be eating a fish, a herring, on the beach. The "red herring" is a huge tip off, that Jacob is not the most important being on the Island. Jacob's nemesis used Ben's free will to kill Jacob. While on the other hand, Jacob manipulated certain people to come to the Island AGAINST their will, fate, through the plane crash and then manipulated them by "pushing" them in the direction he wanted them to go to serve a yet unknown higher purpose, be it good or evil. See Fate versus free will. ** Counter: we haven't seen Jacob "push" or force anybody to do anything against their will. His off-Island interactions with Locke, Jack, Sun, Jin, Kate, and Sawyer did not involve asking, urging, or forcing them to go to the Island. In the case of Hurley, he merely offered him a perspective from which to appreciate his "gift". His nemesis, on the contrary, has deceived many as to his true identity, frequently using loved ones to earn false trust from those he is manipulating. When he convinced Ben to kill Jacob, it was by offering him a perspective that played upon Ben's character flaws (willingness to kill, misery and guilt regarding Alex, inferiority complex regarding his role on the Island). Plus, the fish is clearly not a herring as they do not live in that part of the ocean. *** The fish may rather be a symbol for the people brought to the Island. This may be a conscious reference to the Christian concept of fishing for "man". *** Counter Counter: by giving an illusion of free will, Jacob could manipulate more people, than by forcing them to do something- people are more eager, when they think, that decisions they make are theirs. So, Jacob is master manipulator, because he "pushes" without pushing. **** Counter of the Counter Counter: There have been no evidence shown that Jacob is using the illusion of free will to manipulate people. *****'C-C-C-C-C-C-Combo-Counter' There is absolutely no evidence that Jacob does not use illusion to manipulate people. * He is a man obsessed by some greater event that he doesn’t want to occur, and with this he ignores other people's will, like the Nemesis. * He is bound by the rules so that he can't give things away. To balance things out if something is given then something must also be taken away. ** The greater event polluted Jacob's judgment, and he spent much of his life trying to force a particular outcome. Initially, Jacob's intent was altruistic, but his actions were misguided. Jacob has been granted powers of the Island which he has abused. With Jacob's obsession corrupting him, and he began manipulating people and events in order to prove he was right out of stubbornness. The Others are a group of unfortunately mis-led minions of Jacob. Toward the inescapable end of his life, something caused Jacob to realize the error of his ways and he began to set into motion a series of events to set things right. His death and post-death appearances are port of Jacob's redemptive plan. ** Biblical. The biblical story of Jacob and his twin brother Esau parallels the relationship between MiB/MIB and Jacob. Not as omniscient and intelligent as he seemed * He demonstrated a severe lack of intelligence as a kid, being outwitted by his brother as he makes up rules to the game they are playing. He was never intended to be the Island's protector, it was always meant to be his brother, which is why Mother favored him. * He remains subservient and docile to his foster-mother, even after she admits to having killed his biological mother. * He has a propensity for fits of emotional violent rage. ** Note that all of the above happened about 2000 years ago, making it very possible that Jacob has grown past this. He says that the remaining Candidates were "flawed," like me" in What They Died For. * His demeanor and appearance is that of an average or below average man. * His acolytes "the Others" and those at the Temple act irrationally. * He continues to draw people to the Island, knowing that they will be killed and corrupted. * He describes the Island as being a cork holding back a great evil, but when the cork is removed the black smoke is weakened not strengthened. * Benjamin points out to Hurley that Jacob did certain things wrong, and that there is a better way. Actions :See also Jacob's cabin/Theories * When Jacob asks Ilana for help in and , he is asking her to ensure Sayid is on Ajira 316 and protect the remaining six candidates. * According to Ben, Jacob makes lists of "good" and "bad" people, but to date, we have only seen Ben collect information about who is good and bad through Mikhail. Furthermore, Locke described a more democratic process to Kate that the Others had carried out to decide if a person is good and deserves to be on the Island or not. This process is apparently not limited to the survivors of Oceanic 815, since Ben implies to consensus having been reached about Goodwin being a "good man" and reliable enough to judge Ana Lucia's character and vouch for her. This theory indicates that Jacob may not have the final say. * The Man in Black is making promises to recruit people on his side. By exploiting their desires ("what do you want?") or the possibility he might kill somebody turning down his offer, he is coercing his recruits and thus depriving them of free will or choice. Jacob on the other hand neither makes promises (there is none we've thus far seen) nor does he threaten or suggest punishment. He appeals to the free choice of the individual to do what is good or right without offering any kind of reward ("Who are you?"). "They are coming" * In , Jacob's last words were "they are coming." He said this to the fake Locke who is the Man in Black from the opening. Jacob knew of the loophole and "touched" the lives of the Oceanic survivors and specific others for them to play a key part in the coming war over the island. This war has been alluded to by Bram, "Jeremy Bentham" and Charles Widmore. ** When Jacob is talking with Nemesis, he states that "it only ends once". The coming war will be very big, something we haven't experienced in the series so far, and it will be a fateful battle. Every single conflict, death, suffer, choice was just a progress for this war to happen, and this big conflict will decide the fate of the Island forever. * Since Widmore and his team have arrived on Hydra Island it has become extremely likely that "they" refers to Widmore and his team. Jacob's final warning to the Man in Black now seems to come from genuine concern and the Man in Black has accepted it as such, therefore sending Sawyer to Hydra Island on a recon mission. Thus, no matter what differences Jacob and the Man in Black had, Jacob merely pointed out that Team Widmore was equally dangerous to either of their "followers". ** I immediately thought along these lines when we saw Team Widmore arriving, which makes the interpretation of "They're coming" very ambiguous. It seemed to me that it was meant as a threat to MiB, i.e. "it doesn't matter that I'm dead - you still won't succeed". The presence of Team Widmore's sonic fences means they expect an encounter with Smokey - do they know what Smokey really is (i.e. Jacob's "ward")? Both Juliet and Ben professed ignorance to Smokey's nature, so how could Widmore have found out? IIRC only Jacob (and possibly Richard) knew. Jacob told Hurley that Jacob wants some (still debatable) group to reach the Island - if this turns out to be Team Widmore it's pretty likely that they're there at Jacob's request to maintain MiB's "confinement" (or to kill him outright, if possible). * "They are coming..." refers to a continuing influx of more people to the Island, not any group in particular. The MiB wants to keep people off the Island but Jacob has made sure people will always come for his idea of continuing progress. ** In this case he would have said "They keep coming...". As 'famous last words' these don't seem to serve a purpose unless it is a warning for either Ben or MiB. As a note for Ben that somebody else is arriving (expect the unexpected) or a deliberate information for MiB (ensuring MiB is prepared and executes his plan, unaware that he is doing exactly what Jacob's masterplan has been all about and all along). * When Jacob says these words, he is speaking in reference to the Time Traveling Losties, i.e Sawyer, Juliet, Miles, Jin, Jack, Kate, Hurley and Sayid that they are coming back to 2007 from 1977 because he knows that at the exact same moment but 30 years earlier they are performing the tasks they did in The Incident, 1 & 2. ** Just to point out, saying something happened at the "exact same moment" earlier in time is fallatical. Those actions always happened 30 years earlier, we only percieve it to be in a similiar timeline because the show was edited as such, there wasn't any connection between moments in the past and future of the show, only the effects caused by events 30 years earlier. ** Jacob could be referring to the remaining living "candidates" who are with the group mentioned above (Sawyer, Jin, Jack, Hurley and Sayid) *** Jacob is not referring to any of the candidates. Jacob tells Hurley that he must use the light house to help "someone" reach the Island. "They are coming" refers to the person or people he wants Hurley to help get to the Island. MIB seemed genuinely afraid when Jacob said this, and the MIB is obviously not afraid of the candidates. These people Jacob are bringing will represent the destiny/good side of the war. The MIB and his recruits represent free will/evil. **** This contacted Christian Shepherd who owned the depicted house and inevitably became through his death the Jacob equivalent to the ALT universe. ***** The Lighthouse had nothing to do with contacting Christian Shepherd in the afterlife. As far as we know, Jacob has no idea of the afterlife the LOSTies are creating/created. The journey to the lighthouse was for 3 reasons: 1) To get Hurley and Jack safely away from the temple while Smokey went on his rampage, 2) To show us (as viewers) the Lighthouse in general, and 3) To get Jack to see that someone had been watching him since he was a kid, making he himself realize that they are here for (a) greater reason(s). * Jacob is the keeper of time. His rule that "you cannot change the past" has been explained by many of his followers, particularly Eloise Hawking and then her son Daniel Faraday. However, by dying, he knows that the castaways can change the course of time. Jughead didn't detonate when Jack initially dropped it because Jacob didn't allow it to happen. However, in his death, he can no longer control time. He knows what is happening, and warns that "they're coming", as in Juliet is changing the space-time continuum by hitting Jughead and detonating it. * By "they are coming" Jacob means to say that the group outside has figured out that Locke isn't really Locke, and that they're about to bust in to investigate. Notice that "Locke" glances towards the door when Jacob says it. ** Jacob needs the people outside the statue to stay alive, thus "they are coming" is information for MiB to help him mentally prepare for the new people outside, calm down and thus prevent another killing rampage as he did after the Black Rock's arrival in 1867. If it were secret information on behalf of Jacob's cause, Jacob wouldn't disclose such vital information & especially not to individuals that just collaborated to kill him. * He was refering to the 1977's Losties, who were coming back (well, or forward) to 2007. Death * Rule: "Only the leader can kill Jacob". With only Jacob and his nemesis on the Island in the beginning of , Jacob cannot be killed since there is no actual leader. Every leader that has followed (Eloise, Widmore, etc) wouldn't fall into the trap of being manipulated into killing Jacob. Nemesis manipulates everyone into thinking Locke is the leader, but he was never Jacob's chosen leader. That is why Ben is the one who has to kill Jacob and Locke/Nemesis can't. [Ben is still the true leader of the Others (the followers of Jacob). ** Rule: "The Nemesis can't kill Jacob" - Any human can kill Jacob, but only the leader of the Others through Richard can get access to Jacob. The Nemesis can only get to Jacob by conning Richard into guiding him there, and only as leader of the Others can the Nemesis convince Richard to do so. Only Ben, after years of being ignored by his god had motivation to kill Jacob. The Nemesis couldn't kill Jacob. He had to convince a mortal to do it. So he probably manipulated both Ben and Locke. ** The irony of all this is that despite the rule, Nemesis did in fact kill Jacob since he kicked him into the fire. Jacob was killed by being burned alive, not by a knife stab. ** This may be why Jacob is able to appear to Hugo after his death, because he wasn’t killed exactly how he was supposed to be. Jacob orchestrated his own death * In , Jacob is seen reading Everything That Rises Must Converge before his first encounter with Locke off the Island. The cover of this book illustrates a flying dove which is shot down by an arrow. A literal meaning would be that Jacob must die (converge) after his rule over the Island (rise). It is his destiny to die, that is why he willingly accepts it and shows no opposition to Ben knifing him. * Jacob knew he had to die. He tells MIB that he'll be waiting when he finds his loophole, he makes no attempt to stop Ben, indeed it could be argued that he encourages Ben. It's fairly obvious that everything we've seen in the show, on and off the Island, boils down to the Jacob/MIB conflict. All other characters are being manipulated in some way. The show is rife with religious influence, and the Jacob/MIB conflict can easily be compared to the Judeo-Christian conflict between God and Satan. The Bible ascertains that you either serve one or the other, whether consciously or not, the same can be said about Jacob/MIB. Also, it seems a little telling that Jacob's death was delivered on flight 316. John 3:16 anyone? "For God so loved the world he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in Him may not perish, but have eternal life." Jacob knew there would be a sacrifice, namely him, and just as God orchestrated Jesus's death as part of a larger plan, Jacob orchestrated his own death, allowed MIB to find his loophole, as part or a bigger plan, presumably to end the cycle and get MIB out of the way for good. Jacob already appeared to Hurley right after his death, just as Jesus appeared to many folk after his... * Jacob fully predicted his death from Ben Linus. As shown in disarming Richard Alpert he is more than capable of preventing such an attack, but instead till the very end accepted it and hoped Ben would not cave in to anger. That said, on one hand Jacob expresses faith in people's better natures but like with Ben he does not intervene to alter their sense of right and wrong. With Jacob gone MIB is able to escape, but it appears he already finalised the candidates that will take over and perhaps in his death the ensuing conflict will result in MIB being sealed for good. * In support of the point made that Jacob's death being delivered on Ajira flight 316 might have a deeper meaning; Kate and Sawyer helped make the runway for it. As far as we know, it has seen no other used except flight 316 and would seem to have been made specifically for that purpose. It could be taken multiple ways but the two most prominent are "Ben is psychic" or "orders came down from Jacob to lay out the welcome mat for what only he knew would be his death." * Jacob models christ in his intentions, and the MiB models satan. Jacob intended to die because he knew it would ultimately destroy the MiB. This models Jesus Christ in the way that he died a physical death but in the end it's the devil who is destroyed (genesis 3:15- "you shall bruise his heel, but he shall crush your head"). Jacob sacrificed himself for the good of the island because he knew it would eradicate the evil on the island manifested in the MiB.